I was worried a bit about that but apart from antifouling I haven’t seen a marked difference as everything on deck is so substantial above 40 feet that nothing seems to break and down below its a bit time consuming maintaining plumbing and electrics but nothing costs much there.
Jeanneau is part of Groupe Beneteau and neither these nor Bavaria are light by modern standards, they were just ahead of the game with manufacturing processes.
That has been my experience, so far.
I wouldn't go too mad on the "heavy" bit. Once you get to about 40ft, the production cruisers are plenty heave enough and the security and comfort come more with the size. Also remember that a heavy boat goes slower.
Ballast ratios on their own are misleading. It all depends on how low the ballast is and the lower ratios of modern designs reflect the greater draft and shape of the keel. Simple example is the corsair linked to earlier which has a ballast ratio of 42%, but its draft is only 5' and if you look at the keel most of the weight is high up - the casting is wide at the top than at the bottom.
Been there done that .... had a Bavaria 36 from 1999, was a great boat for a couple, and did reasonably well in 20-30knots of wind, never felt unsafe .... but if you want to go longer and further, which you eventually will, then they are physically too small for all the modern comforts we have come to expect in the 21st century.
Shaft fell out of coupling - Cruisers & Sailing Forums
Feels like I can scrap my original plan and look at the boats I ignored previously before committing to anything.
I’m intrigued at the cost jump that you think happens between the two sizes. What sort of things are you thinking about?
Many marinas, despite charging by the metre, have a stepped charging system so each metre costs more over if the boat is over 12m and so there's a jump in cost. sails, chain and ropes are based on area rather than length and so go up exponentially with size, and similar with paint. These aren't an issue with over 40' specifically but do rise disproportionately with boat length.
Berthing costs. Replacement gear costs - at the most basic loads are bigger and need to move further so ropes are thicker and longer. Anything that wears out will be costlier to replace, decide you want a new fender, it's the bigger more expensive one and you'll need more of them, the new sail is considerably more expensive... Etc etc.
Only the early 34s had a linear galley. They also had a flat stern without a boarding platform but with a larger lazarette locker. Most from the mid '90s had a conventional layout which I read somewhere corrected an imbalance in the early ones, which still make satisfactory boats. Ballast is around 40% but with next to no form stability, which means that they may heel initially but then are steady and hold their sail better than many other boats of that size. We cruised on ours mostly as a couple but with occasional guests and found the size quite adequate, with the advantage that generous HMs would sometimes slot us into the <10m band for charging.
